...ok, but shh..., don't tell anyone. There's been a lot of buzz for weeks that Air America is coming to KPOP in San Diego in early August, and a flurry of people have just told me the flip will happen Monday. Radio industry rumors are notoriously unreliable, though. San Diego would be the third significant market where Clear Channel has added "Progressive Talk" (Air America + Ed Schultz). There have been rumors for a couple of weeks now that CC's going to spread the format to some top markets, too, including 570 KLAC Los Angeles and 1690 WRLL Chicago.

I agree their initial policy of wanting stations to carry all of their programming was a mistake, but they've since corrected that. Their ratings seem to be good so far, and as some of the posts here suggest, they're slowly entering more major markets.

For instance:Their ratings are not "good so far".Nor have I seen an entry into any "major markets". They're still on fewer major-market stations then when they launched.

But yes, it's "as some post here suggest". This is the second-hand smoke from what they've been blowing. Like the stories of clobbering the conservative alternative in their biggest market (turns out they lost close to 3-1).

Normally it takes about a year for a radio program or network to gain a solid listener base.

The most important demo is the 25-54 year olds (those are the people with the most money to spend and hence coveted by paying advertisers) In New York, after just 4 months on the air, the Franken show finish .2 behind Rush, and had more than double what the O'reilly show rated.

The AAR website is the biggest radio streaming site in the world.

In Portland, AAR is kicking ass! They are the #1 radio show.. Not just in talk radio, but #1 in ALL radio shows.

The radio ratings that are freely available on the web are called "12+" or "top-line" ratings. They mean nothing to advertisers, and that's why you don't need to pay to see them. 25-54 numbers, especially 25-54 numbers for specific parts of the day, are what really interest advertisers and more accurately determine a station's success. But in the case of KPOJ Portland's switch to "Progressive Talk," the 12+ numbers at least show the trend. Here's a list of all of Portland's talk radio stations, and their 12+ ratings for winter and spring:

And in the ever-important 25-54 demo, KPOJ rose from a 0.3 to a 4.9, putting them in the #3 slot overall for all Portland radio stations, according to an industry publication, and putting them ahead of all other talk stations in the market. (This contradicts even rosier information I received earlier. I trust this trade pub more.)Particularly impressive is that, in the 25-54 demo, KPOJ's 10a-3p daypart (2 hrs Franken, 3 hrs Ed Schultz), scored a 6.4, putting KPOJ at #1 among all Portland radio stations, which means KPOJ cleaned the clocks of both Lars Larson and Rush Limbaugh.

Even more amazing is the month-by-month breakdown of that 10a-3p daypart. Again in the 25-54 demo, KPOJ grew from a 0.4 in March, to a 4.9 in April, to a 5.5 in May, to an unbelievable 8.8 in June.

What's great for Air America in these numbers is not only the fact that the format is a success and growing, but the fact that it's also threatening the other talk radio stations. Everyone not named KPOJ lost about a fifth of their overall listeners, and from what I can glean, the shift in the 25-54 demo was even more dramatic. This tells station owners that, if they have a low-performing AM station available, Air America is a great format to switch to, not only because of the potential growth if they have it, but also because of the potential threat to their station if they don't.

This is awesome. I live in Santa Barbara and this is a double-whammy if it is true, because this is the same station that I think Hannity and I KNOW Savage was on...Addition by addition AND subtraction...

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